Case study I : critical reading and student engagement with poetry

Abstract

This chapter explores the significance of engaging students in the process of critical reading by providing them with the opportunity of choosing the poems they read and discuss in class. Focusing on my experience of teaching poetry as part of an A Level English course in Malta, this chapter underscores the need to capitalize on students' contributions. The teaching of poetry in post-sixteen education is meant to help students develop the skill to read a variety of poems in a critical manner. Developing such a skill is sometimes a tortuous process that can lead teachers to adopt a pedagogy that emphasizes the modelling of a style of close reading, which arguably pushes students into the role of bystanders, thus sacrificing personal engagement. The teacher is at the centre of the arena and the students are meant to be learning by observing the master reader as he or she unravels the poem. The teacher might occasionally ask a question but 'When the whole class and the teacher tackle a poem together, what tends to happen is more like an oral comprehension test than a genuine discussion' (D'Arcy, 1978: 148). The students feel they have to provide the right answers to a set of questions that are not genuinely seeking new information but are there to test the kind of understanding the teacher is looking for. This means that the lesson ends up being dominated by teacher talk. McRae (1991) argues that 'Teacher input, to be assimilated and reproduced, invites static almost mechanical learning. Interaction, learner involvement, inductive learning, all contribute to making the process dynamic' (p. 8). The prevalence of such teacher input is a by-product of the act of teachers positioning themselves as 'gatekeepers' through whose 'offices' (Tweddle et al., 1997: 50) students read the poem.